FarmVille - A Thing of the Past?
posted Saturday May 15, 2010 by Scott Ertz
While we may have spoken of FarmVille in the past, it isn't really popular among the PLuGHiTz Live! staff. It is, however, very popular among Facebook users. While it doesn't cost any money to play, you do have the ability to purchase in-game items with real world money, in the form of Facebook Credits - the only currency that Facebook allows on its network.
Facebook Credits are 30% profit for Facebook and 70% for the vendor who accepts them. While a very lucrative deal for Facebook, Zynga, the creator of FarmVille, wants more of the money. Facebook, on the other hand, has no interest in negotiating.
As of right now, we see three different possibilities:
- Facebook negotiates to an acceptable point with Zynga - incredibly unlikely.
- Zynga accepts the existing terms of Facebook Credits and continues business as usual - possible.
- Zynga creates their own social gaming network and leaves the Facebook family all together - extremely likely.
Obviously FarmVille isn't going away any time soon, but if my predictions are correct, you will see a whole lot less of the "I need a cow" messages on your news feed.
